The Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers

We stayed at this hotel recently when taking some family members to go see the musical, "Wicked" and visiting the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. We chose it because we wanted a recreational experience. Upon arriving, the hotel lobby was beautiful and crowded. When we approached the desk, they couldn't find our reservation initially. After that, they tried to get us to pay for our room twice.

Also, the desk clerk didn't listen to us at all and wouldn't answer us as we tried to explain things to her. Eventually we had to ask for a manager, and he was less than friendly as well. I don't know if this is true for everyone's experience at the hotel, and I want to be careful about giving the place a bad reputation based on our isolated experience. But I got the sense that because we looked like a bunch of tourists, which we were, that we weren't important to the staff. Because we were a family on vacation and not business people in power suits, it felt like we were treated as less than important.

Outside of the service, our hotel experience was fairy pleasant. The location of the hotel alone made it a great place to stay. It's right on the river, which gives it a roomier feeling than many downtown Chicago hotels. There's a river walk right behind the hotel that's highly pleasant and wasn't crowded. The views from the rooms were dynamically beautiful, especially at night. We had rooms on both sides of the hotel, and the view of Navy Pier was especially breathtaking.

However, I tend to be a bit claustrophobic when I travel, and the rooms at the Sheraton were very cramped from floor to ceiling. But the décor in the rooms were nice overall, the beds were comfortable, and most importantly, our rooms were clean. The lobby areas of the hotel were nice, the lounge which is called, "Chi Bar" was also nice and you can catch my thoughts on it in a review of its own.

Most importantly, the hotel served its purpose very well. It gave us a place to sleep and it was a good location from which to do a self-guided walking tour of the city. It was just a few blocks away from everything we wanted to see, including Millennium Park, the theater we were attending, restaurants, shops, and local sights of the city. I would recommend staying at this hotel if you want a great view. If you're more of a hostel type person or you know someone in the city, I would honestly say you could skip it. It's nice to have this kind of an experience once, and it can be fun for the family if you want to try something new. But despite the big ritzy lobby, the hotel experience itself wasn't any different than staying in any economy hotel.